Book Review: Skin Tight

Quote:
“Stranahan lunged out of the shadows and stabbed him straight through with a
stuffed marlin head he had gotten off the wall.”

In
self-defense, of course. Stranahan is the protagonist of a Hiaasen novel for
adults, a sub-genre of action-adventure-comedy stories that take place in
Florida and usually involve conflict between good and evil, more specifically
defined as Greenies and Greedheads. Carl Hiaasen became famous by reporting on
real Florida news stories, then shifted into writing these novels that are
wacky, gory, preposterous...but not much more so than the news stories.

Anyway,
Stranahan helped to put a lot of violent criminals in prison. Several of them
are out by now. The question that lingers in his mind, after stabbing the
hitman with the marlin head, is which of these baddies sent the thug and where
the next thug is likely to be lurking. All of his enemies, including the tacky
TV “personality,” the sleazy lawyer, and the despicable plastic surgeon,” are
convincingly loathsome and also convincingly ridiculous.

This being
a Hiaasen novel, there are also several comic but admirable characters,
including a requisite number of attractive women, the focal points of whose
costumes are often bare, tanned, otherwise flawless skin. They get
into absurd situations (which would,in real life, ruin that flawless skin) but
they tend to be able to laugh at themselves.

Skin
Tight is not actually my favorite Hiaasen novel (others feature more
wildlife and fewer murders) but it’s as funny as the rest of the collection. If
you don’t mind laughing at the idea of the plastic surgeon getting the nose job
to end all nose jobs, you’ll enjoy this book.

To buy it here, you pay $5 for the book and $5 for shipping. Although other items that will fit into the same package can be shipped for the same $5, we will send Carl Hiaasen or a charity of his choice $1. That's the only reason why it's better to buy this book from this web site than from any of the other places where it can be bought.